Never Lose Hope
by strayphoenix
Summary: The last time Jean had been caught trying to sneak into her boyfriend’s room in the middle of the night, she had been caught by Logan and assigned to do extra chores. ‘That was then’ she told herself. ‘This is different’. Way different. oneshot.


The night was silent. There was no noise coming from the Xavier Institute. The halls were abandoned. Ghostly and haunting: a large contrast to the noise and business of the life that went on there during the day. The grandfather clock struck twelve, giving the mansion a small amount of noise, a small amount of life. Though it seemed that no one would here it, two people did.

Jean Grey silently opened and shut the door to her room. She gently twisted the knob on her door as she shut it to be sure that she would make no noise. The last time she had been caught trying to sneak into her boyfriend's room in the middle of the night, she had been caught by Logan and assigned to do extra chores.

'That was then' she told herself. 'This is different'

As she silently tiptoed down the hall and past the closed doors of her sleeping teammates, strings of thoughts became coming to her. In the confines of her room, she had psychic shielding build into the walls, blocking out the subconscious noise. But now as she wandered the halls of the Xavier Mansion, the dreams of her fellow teammates came to her and the dreams, like their dreamers, were all unique. Some dreams were of love and some of them were of war. Others were of memories long forgotten and yet others were of the future. Through the mass noise of what felt to her like a thousand radios, she searched out one. And even through the noise of the X-Men's thoughts, she pointed out the one she was looking for and with a bittersweet smile, she headed towards its owner.

As she began to descend the stairs, her step produced a loud squeak. She spun around in fear and searched the multitude of thoughts for one that might have been disturbed by her noise. Seeing that none were, she sighed in relief and instead levitated herself down the stairs. She landed herself gracefully at the bottom and continued the rest of her journey on foot. Through the windows of the mansion, the moon shone high upon her red hair, making it a vibrant, fiery color. She stopped for a moment to look up at it with reverence and then continued on her way, thanking it for guiding her way through the dark corridors.

Finally she reached her destination. She stood outside for a moment, contemplating her plan of action. It didn't take her long however, and she unplugged the security cameras, opened the doors and stepped inside the cold infirmary.

"Hey, Scott" she said lovingly.

Jean's only response was the soft beeping of the oxygen machine. Scott lay motionless in the white bed with white sheets and a white gown. His body looked pale and his face looked naked without his glasses. The only color in the room was his ruby quartz glasses that laid on the table next to him.

She walked silently across the room to his bed. She just looked at him for a while, admiring how he could make her feel so wonderful just by watching him. Careful not to disturb him, she climbed into the bed with him. She laid her head on his chest and telekinetically moved his arm so that it was around her waist.

"How are you feeling tonight?" she whispered softly.

……_Beep……Beep…… Beep……Beep……Beep……_

"I figured" she said, slightly smiling.

She threw an arm across his chest and buried her face in his hospital gown.

"Things are good here. I'm taking care of the team while we all wait for you to…well, to take charge again"

She gently stroked his side as she kept talking to him about how life was going on.

"We all miss you on our missions. We've had some pretty big ones that you're going to be pissed that you couldn't lead. We fought this dude named Sebastian Shaw. He could absorb all the energy we threw at him and he was really hard to beat. Kitty finally got him though. 1 X-Men, 0 Bad Guy"

Jean could imagine his laugh at her little joke but she soon shook it out of her head. She knew if she thought of that, she'd cry.

"Warren's joined the institute. He's a really important asset. You're going to love working with him. We can always use another flyer. Rahne and Jubes have come back too. Of course, all hell is breaking loose.

"Alex's has joined the Institute, too. He said that Hawaii was too far away to be from…"

She stopped, forbidding herself to even say it. She buried her face further into his gown and forced herself to keep talking as tears threatened to seep from her eyes.

"The New Mutants are being, well, the New Mutants. Jubes and Bobby have started dating even though Bobby was boosted up to the regular X-Men team…and…"

She couldn't do it any more. The fact that Bobby had been boosted up to replace Scott was too much for her. She let out a sob and then another. She gripped the fabric of his gown as the tears flowed from her eyes.

"Yeah, life's going great. Except I cry myself to sleep every night, I haven't eaten any more than maybe a salad a day for the past seven months, I haven't left the mansion except for missions and school and my grades are so low, they might expel me"

She pulled herself up so that her face was in the nook where his neck met his shoulder causing his hand to drop from her side.

"Oh, Scott. I'm miserable without you. I hate not having you there to tell me you love me. I hate not having you crawl into my bed at night when you know I need it. I-I hate having to put up with everyone at school and here, just trying to fix me. They know they can't. They know that you're my only remedy"

Her voice turned angry.

"They're giving up on you, you know. All of them, Scott, they all think you won't make it, even the professor. They don't say it but I hear them. They're loosing hope. Hank says you have little chances of recovery and after seven months, he says, (sniff) he says it's not worth it. Of course they'll never say it to the students but I can hear the adults when they talk, Scott. I know how they feel"

She reduced her voice to a broken whisper.

"They're talking of taking you off life support. I-I won't let them do it, you know. I won't let you go out without a fight. You deserve a good fight after everything's said and done"

Her voice returned to normal volume and tone: compassionate.

"If worse comes to worse, I'll drop out of college and pay for your life support with that money myself. I won't give up on you, even if I have to wait the rest of my life. I won't ever have anyone else; I won't ever forsake you"

Jean felt herself running out of tears and energy. She was suddenly very sleepy. She felt her mind getting fuzzy and suddenly she was calm again and despite the cold hospital room, she felt warm.

"I must be coming down with something" she whispered with a smile as she began to doze off. "I think it's been diagnosed as L-O-V-E"

And as she drifted off to sleep, she could have sworn she really heard Scott laugh.

->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->-

"Jeannie? Jeannie, wake up! You've got training today!"

When he got no response, he opened her door. Her room was empty and her bed looked slept in but was empty at the moment. Logan checked her bathroom to be sure that she wasn't there. Then he allowed himself a small smile.

He walked across the hall and down the stairs to the infirmary.

Just as he expected, Jean was lying in the infirmary bed next to Scott. She had a small smile on her face and looked like she had gotten her first good night's sleep since the accident.

Logan was about to turn and let her sleep there when something caught his eye. Scott's head was to his side, leaning right on top of hers and he had a soft smile painted on his face as well. Not only that, but he was holding Jean around the waist.

When you hear the same thing for seven months it's hard to actually notice it but as Logan retuned his ears, he picked up something out of the normal.

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Logan broke into a wild grin and tried to retain his tears as he ran out of the infirmary, yelling for the Professor and Hank.

Jean slightly stirred and tears began to form in her eyes as her mind began picking up what her physical body still could not.

"I knew you'd come back to me" she murmured.

* * *

I felt lovey so I wrote this lovey story. I hope you likey. R and R please. I lovey reviews. 


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